API FAQs

By
Carlinea Williamson

We can automate all your stock & pricing updates on House of Home

An API is a link between your system and House of Home. It means that every time you make a pricing, sale price or stock level change on your website it will automatically update your House of Home account. It really simplifies the process of managing your ads.

We have API connections built for Shopify, Woo Commerce, Big Commerce, Vend, Neto, and an XML feed connection.

Connecting is easy - give us a call to see if we can make 2017 more efficient for your business - Dave on 03 9257 3240.

APIs Explained - Automate your Ad Uploading & Updating

Here’s our guide to APIs – we’ve aimed to make it as easy to understand as possible. If you would like more technical information, then please see our open source api instructions here.

If you have other questions that you’d like answered please email us or give us a call on 03 9257 3240.

What’s an API and how can it help my business?

It’s an application-programming interface, which is a set of programming instructions and protocols for connecting to other Web-based software applications.
But what does that mean? It means that House of Home has released its API so that other web site developers can easily connect to our system.
For the retailer, it makes it easier to get product information into House of Home. But more importantly it can automate pricing updates, stock levels and sale pricing.
So if you already have a point of sale system or a web store with all of your up to date product information – description, photos, pricing and stock level, an API connection to House of Home will help keep the two synchronized.
And anything that saves time and duplicated effort is good for your business right?

Which systems can an API link be built for?

So if you are wondering if an API link to House of Home is an option for your business, lets talk about the systems it works well with. We have connectors built for Shopify, Big Commerce, Woo Commerce, Vend, and Magento, as well as being able to accept XML feeds.
An API link can be easily set up between most well known ecommerce platforms. The key thing though is that the data in the system that you are linking to House of Home is up to date and accurate. Remember - rubbish in equals rubbish out.
Remember the API connection is going to automatically transfer the pricing, stock levels etc from your system onto House of Home.

I want to get an API in place for my business – where do I start?

If you run Shopify

We have designed & built a connector for linking Shopify and House of Home. This connector makes the process of creating the link between your Shopify site and our marketplace really easy. In most instances we can have the feed set up in half a day, plus ad mapping time. Sound good? Please Email Us to start the process. Looking for more Shopify specific info? Here's a guide to connecting a Shopify API

This connector link will –

• Bring your ad content from your Shopify site into your House of Home account

• Update your prices, sale prices & stock levels on your ads on House of Home, so that they are the same as on your website.

• Then ongoing you only need to update your Shopify site.

If you run Big Commerce

We have designed & built a connector for linking Big Commerce and House of Home. This connector makes the process of creating the link between your Big Commerce site and our marketplace really easy. In most instances we can have the feed set up in half a day, plus ad mapping time. Sound good? Please Email Us to start the process.

This connector link will –

• Bring your ad content from your Big Commerce site into your House of Home account

• Update your prices, sale prices & stock levels on your ads on House of Home, so that they are the same as whats on your website.

• Then ongoing you only need to update your Big Commerce site.

If you run Woo Commerce

We have designed & built a connector for linking Woo Commerce and House of Home. This connector makes the process of creating the link between your Woo Commerce site and our marketplace really easy. In most instances we can have the feed set up in half a day, plus ad mapping time. Sound good? Please Email Us to start the process.

This connector link will –

• Bring your ad content from your Woo Commerce site into your House of Home account

• Update your prices, sale prices & stock levels on your ads on House of Home, so that they are the same as whats on your website.

• Then ongoing you only need to update your Woo Commerce site.

If you run Vend

We have designed & built a connector for linking Vend and House of Home. This connector makes the process of creating the link between your Vend POS and our marketplace really easy. In most instances we can have the feed set up in half a day, plus ad mapping time. Sound good? Please Email Us to start the process.

This connector link will –

• Bring your ad content from Vend into your House of Home account

• Update your prices, sale prices & stock levels on your ads on House of Home, so that they are the same as whats on your website.

• Then ongoing you only need to update Vend.

If you run Neto

We have designed & built a connector for linking Neto and House of Home. This connector makes the process of creating the link between your Neto Webstore and our marketplace really easy. In most instances we can have the feed set up in half a day, plus ad mapping time. Sound good? Please Email Us to start the process.

This connector link will –

• Bring your ad content from Neto into your House of Home account

• Update your prices, sale prices & stock levels on your ads on House of Home, so that they are the same as whats on your website.

• Then ongoing you only need to update Neto.

If you run Magento

If you run a Magento webstore – we’ve made it very easy to connect we’ve had a Magento Extension built. Email Us for details on where to access this. We recommend using a Magento Gold Partner Help Desk to support you in the installation.

Are you using an e-commerce platform not listed?

If you run Retail Express, Big Cartel or another E-Commerce platform we can help you get the API link in place - just shoot us an email and let us know that you would like to discuss it further. If you’ve got another system not covered here, an API is most likely still possible, talk to us, and Email Us and lets see how we can help. Very often we can set up a feed to update your listings via an XML feed.

Interested in doing it yourself?

Setting up an API does require an IT professional. Generally the process looks like this:

You’ll need an API key for your webstore or Point of Sale system. You can generate an API key for your House of Home account directly through your account screen.

The developer you are working with needs these two API keys.

3 They then start the mapping. The fields in your system are mapped to match the fields in the House of Home API. So the price field needs to be linked to the HoH price field etc.

4 When this is complete the developer will push the data from your system into House of Home.

Because there is no standard categorization for homewares, furniture, decorating or building products there is still some manual work required. Once the data is in House of Home, the ads need to be reviewed individually and the proper product categories chosen. This only needs to be done once per ad. The rest of the detail will then update automatically.